All-Star Alphabet is availible now!

minor muppetz

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The new Sesame Street DVD, All-Star Alphabet, was released today. I bought me a copy. Here is my review.

The plot takes place at the mall, on a show called All-Star Alphabet. It is hosted by the letters A and Z, who are actually humans in costumes (A is played by Nicole Sullivan and the Z is played by Stephen Colpert). They both split up to talk to random people about letters, but the A has better luck than the Z. There is a scene where they both look for signs with A's and Z's on them, but while the A can find signs with plenty of A's, the Z doesn't have as much luck. In one scene, they ask various people if they can think of words that begin with their letters, and while everybody can think of good A words, the only Z words that people can think of are Zebra and Zoo.

Oddly enough, none of the Sesame Street cast appears in the linking footage, and there are no muppets in this video. However, unlike Learning About Letters and The Alphabet Game, there are segments for each letter of the alphabet, although in my opinion, too many of them do not have muppets. If it weren't for the fact that Sesame Street segments are on this video, it could have easily passed off as any kind of educational video. I will have to watch it again, since I forget the details of soem letter skits.

Here are the segments that are incldued:
Elmos Alphabet Rap
an animated A skit that I can't remember the details of
a B skit with the dixie chicks (I can't remember the details of this one either)
Elmo and Zoe pretending to be a cowboy and cowgirl, respectivley
Telly talks to a letter D
an E skit that I forget the details of
The letter F appearing on a computer screen
I can't remember what skits were incldued for G or H
I wants to show you the sun (or whatever the title is... this song has Sheryl Crow)
I can't remember what skits were included for J, K, or L
M Is For Monsters, with Elmo, Telly, herry, and other monsters
I can't remember what skits were there for N, O, or P
a cartoon about a guy and duck awaiting Queen Quaigmire
Letter of the day: R (with cookie monster rapping)
Prarie dawn gives Grover sixteen seconds to say an S word
I can't remember what was doen for T
The Way U Do (with Mellissa Etheridge)
A V skit that I don't know how to describe
The letter W on Larry King Live
the letter X being drawn on-screen
Don't Know Why Y Didn't Show (with Norah Jones)
a Z skit that I can't remember
Miles and the Monsetrs saying the alphabet

There was also an animated skit with letters showing up at the mall shown during the end credits, but I am not sure if this was doen on the show or created for the video.

Although there weren't any skits made before 1990 in the vidoe, the DVD includes five classic letter sktis from the early years, although those skits are either animated or don't have any regular characters.
The bonus skits are: an A skit about an ape, a skit about the letter D that I don't know how to describe, capital I, a Dragnet parody about the letter W, and The Zizzy Zoomers. There is also an alphabet game that I haven't played.

I give this DVD three stars.
 

Tim Kelly

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Wow! I could see myself buying that just for The Zizzy Zoomers. :stick_out_tongue:
 

minor muppetz

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Yeah, this video isn't really bad, but the plot could have been better. The plot could have been used for any kind of production, not just Sesame Street. If you are only planning on buying this for classic segments, buy the DVD, as the classic segments are only there as special features. Most of the muppet segmnets in the main program are really good. I was hoping for Norah Jones' appearance to be on there, although the DVD does edit out the beginning of that segment (with Norah refferring to the letter Y as the letter of the day). It is also good that this production incldues two herry Monster segments (M is for Monster and Miles reciting the alphabet).

Out of the classic alphabet segments, there are only two on here that I already knew about (Capital I and The Zizzy Zoomers). I was hoping for a Harvey Kneeslapper segment, Mystery Letter, Would You Like To Buy An O?, Lefty selling a U, Ernie and Lefty holding a P and R sign, respectively (I am not sure who held what sign), one of Kermits alphabet lectures (like W), or Cowboy X.

I had previosuly only heard The Zizzy Zoomers, so the visuals were better than I had expected. I expected some crazy looking anything muppets to be standing behind a wall in front of a blue background, not some crazy anything muppet heads popping up in front of a black background.
 

BEAR

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Wait, i'm confused. First you said that there are no Muppets in the video and then you list them as being in the video.
 

minor muppetz

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BEAR said:
Wait, i'm confused. First you said that there are no Muppets in the video and then you list them as being in the video.
They only appear in segments. They do not appear in the linking footage.
 

MuppetDude

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Sounds like a good video. I was going to buy the VHS version (since the rest of my SS collection is on video), but with all those great bonus clips, I'm goin' for the DVD! The clips don't sound too bad; I'm used to all that 90's stuff now (though I can't stand some of the very repetitive stuff: Suzie Kabloozie's judge intros, kids painting number murals, etc.), and am glad that so many letter segments, either Muppet and animated or film, are used.

skit about the letter D that I don't know how to describe

Did this happen to feature a rainbow-colored D, falling into a daffodil patch? And mixed cartoons with film?
 

minor muppetz

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MuppetDude said:
skit about the letter D that I don't know how to describe

Did this happen to feature a rainbow-colored D, falling into a daffodil patch? And mixed cartoons with film?
I'll have to watch it again, but it seems to have a few questions involving D words.
 

minor muppetz

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I remember now

The Z skit in the video is a skit where Cookie Monster asks a girl to name something that begins with the letter Z.
 
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